Almost the Final Post

Almost the Final Post

We made it to Istanbul, and then we stayed a little longer than planned. A few extra days in the city to meet dear friends, visit the graves of relatives, and of course, keep riding.

As it turns out, we have genuinely fallen in love with cycling in Istanbul. The city has an surprisingly extensive network of bike paths, and we made good use of them. We also confirmed, once again, that Istanbul is not so much a city as a small country that happens to have one name. It keeps going. Every time you think you have seen it, there is more.

We even took the bikes to one of the Princes' Islands. Explored every corner of it. No cars, quiet roads, the Bosphorus all around. A perfect way to spend one of the last days of the trip.

Then came the practical reality: packing the bikes for the flight home. For this we needed boxes, proper ones, and finding packing material in Istanbul on a Saturday turned out to be its own small adventure. Every shop was closed. We ended up at Decathlon, where a wonderful woman called Özge took one look at our situation and simply sorted it. She tracked down boxes, arranged more from another Decathlon branch, and made sure we had everything we needed. Check out the pictures. Özge, you were brilliant. Thank you, and thank you Decathlon. 📦🚴‍♂️

Tomorrow we wrap the bikes. Tuesday we fly home. We are very much looking forward to that.
In the meantime, thank you all once more for the donations and to our Emixa colleagues for continuing to log hours on Strava. We are heading for an all-time high, and every hour and every euro still counts. 🙏

Almost home. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️Read more